General Cold Spell Discussion

[snowy owl]

Surprised this morning just how windy its been here Snowy, felt like just a "normal" NE'rly gale coming down The Forth. However there was the tree that crushed the car on The Royal Mile yesterday. And where I live, next to Hillside Gardens on London Road, there is branch and twig debris everywhere, and one whopping big tree virtually snapped in half. I'm surprised, although there was a few hours last night where the trees were plastered with wet snow which might account for the amount of damage...

Was pretty bad here in the early hours - very strong winds.

Amazed at the amount of snow we are receiving now though! slippery roads and around 2cm of fresh snow sticking everywhere - looks lovely.

[frostyjoe]

have to laugh at accu weather telling people about scotlands snow when theyve had nothing like us.. tut tut.

[Weather-history]

NAE is suggesting wintry possibilities for north Wales and north Midlands for tomorrow

http://expert.weatheronline.co.uk/daten/proficharts/en/nae/2010/03/31/basis06/ukuk/prty/10040118_2_3106.gif

[Costa Del Fal]

Light Sleet/Snow currently.

[Backtrack]

Turning more wintry here atm.

[Costa Del Fal]

Interesting that most charts except the BBC/Meto bring in some ppn here tomorrow, perhaps Wintry, depending on when it arrives.

[Nick L]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8596056.stm

Terrible news. Whoever decided it was a good idea to travel in conditions like this is a fool.

[Backtrack]

3.1c atm, one of the coldest days since February.

[Lynxus]

Just had a very small grauple shower / hail / sleet.

[snowy owl]

still snowing here, although turning slushier underfoot.

[Backtrack]

Sleet has now turned more to snow. 2.9c.

[Iceni]

http://news.bbc.co.u.../uk/8596056.stm

Terrible news. Whoever decided it was a good idea to travel in conditions like this is a fool.

Agreed. To add insult to (mortal) injury they were on their way to Alton Towers — hardly educational.

[Nick L]

Agreed. To add insult to (mortal) injury they were on their way to Alton Towers — hardly educational.

I know, and the weather down here is also awful. Alton Towers will still be there during the Easter hols, unfortunately that poor 14 year old girl won't be. Let's just hope lessons are learned from this.

[Guest]

And SS gets his last dump of the winter.

10+ cm down here already and whiteout. Absolutely pelting down. A68 and A7 shut.

Radar suggests a few more hours of snow could be on the cards too

Sorry to all who've missed out. Was the same for me in the Feb event.

I was quite happy to miss out if I'm honest SS. We had really heavy snow for several hours last night but it wasn't really sticking that much. Found out this morning that the snow line was about 1/2 mile down the road, just outside the village where I live. Not that bothered as we had to get to the hospital for a scan to have a wee peek at BumpCatch and book MrsCatch in for her cut and shut in May. For the first time I'm not fussed about missing out; if it hadn't been for the scan I'd have been a little disappointed by the snowfall last night....

Edited March 31, 2010 by CatchMyDrift

[Weather-history]

Sleet has now turned more to snow. 2.9c.

Just rain here, not even a hint of sleet.

[skifreak]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8596056.stm

Terrible news. Whoever decided it was a good idea to travel in conditions like this is a fool.

Total ignorance without any facts. Should Scotland have shut down from Christmas to Mayday this year?

Lessons to be learnt would be to prevent buses or at least school buses running at all in even a hint of wintry weather which would lead to completely farcical situations arising. Accidents happen on wet roads in rain, better not let buses with kids out on roads in wet and windy weather? Accidents can happen on dry roads, better not.....

Tragic yes, but what's not needed is the usual knee jerk reaction.

Edited March 31, 2010 by skifreak

[Optimus Prime]

The school trip should have been cancelled. Who the hell would go to Alton Towers in this weather? And who the hell would want to go to Alton Towers in any weather?

[Guest]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8596056.stm

Terrible news. Whoever decided it was a good idea to travel in conditions like this is a fool.

It's not as if there weren't any warnings, they should have cancelled and rearranged to go another day. What a waste of a young life.

[Iceni]

Total ignorance without any facts. Should Scotland have shut down from Christmas to Mayday this year?

The facts are a 14 y/o girl is dead and four more teenagers seriously injured.

All for the sake of a frivolous, non-educational school trip to a theme park in atrocious and well-forecasted weather conditions, which should, if the school authorities had any sense, have been cancelled.

[The PIT]

The facts are a 14 y/o girl is dead and four more teenagers seriously injured.

All for the sake of a frivolous, non-educational school trip to a theme park in atrocious and well-forecasted weather conditions, which should, if the school authorities had any sense, have been cancelled.

Of course now we'll probably get over reaction the other way and trips cancelled for heavy rain showers or snow showers. Certainly the trip should have been cancelled or the driver turning back when the going was looking dicey. The warnings were probably ignored as there have been too many false alarms amongst the correct ones.

Edited March 31, 2010 by The PIT

[Guest]

Total ignorance without any facts. Should Scotland have shut down from Christmas to Mayday this year?

Lessons to be learnt would be to prevent buses or at least school buses running at all in even a hint of wintry weather which would lead to completely farcical situations arising. Accidents happen on wet roads in rain, better not let buses with kids out on roads in wet and windy weather? Accidents can happen on dry roads, better not.....

Tragic yes, but what's not needed is the usual knee jerk reaction.

The problem is that it was a long distance trip and they were probably on a schedule so the driver maybe wasn't taking it as slowly as he/she should have done. They were probably trying to do a dry weather trip on a day when it's wet/snowy.

I don't agree with your whole argument that people want to close down everywhere from Christmas to Mayday, I think the suggestion is that if there is heavy snow then trips/journeys should be postponed. Once the snow stops and the roads are clear then it is fine to travel about.

There are wider issues about people driving in snow/rain as if they have a clear dry road, but that's for a different thread...

[kold weather]

So what was the average snowfall for this event in Scotland then?

Certainly is sad to see the death thats for sure!

The models do seem quite keen on bringing in a feature into Wales and southern parts of the NW on Thursday eveing so it certainly needs watching, esp if it is quite a potent system because that will help evap cooling occur during the eveing.

[skifreak]

It's not even been confirmed if the weather was the cause. Should school buses have been cancelled today to? Should all schools in Highland be closed instead of open? All buses used to transport school pupils here must have seat belts, the unfortunate girl is reported to have been thrown out of the bus and trapped under it, was everyone on the bus wearing seat belts?

A tragedy and still plenty unknowns and a lot of questions, but what is not needed is the sort of knee jerk reaction of OMG why was a bus with school pupils allowed on a road in wintry weather. So should school buses be cancelled tomorrow, school will still be there tomorrow as well?

[❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️]

The legendary Nenthead village in Cumbria getting pasted again !....

www.bbc.co.uk/cumbria/content/webcams/nenthead_webcam.shtml

I wish there was a weather fanatic living there who had a weather station and posted the snow depth every day.

Terminal Moraine, do you fancy moving somewhere colder

[Costa Del Fal]

Latest BBC Charts moving in line with other models now by showing a mix of rain/sleet/snow across Wales, The Midlands and parts of Northern England tomorrow.